The Astros' potential sale to Jim Crane is on the agenda at next week's owners meetings, reports The Associated Press. Two sources say Crane, Drayton McLane and Major League Baseball have "reached an understanding" on how the Astros could move to the American League in 2013.

Crane could be getting as much as an $80MM discount off his original price for the team by agreeing to move the Astros to the AL, tweets Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman.

Grady Sizemore is looking for a one-year contract so he can re-establish his value for a longer-term deal next winter, reports Jon Heyman (Twitter link). Heyman makes the comparison to the one-year deal Adrian Beltre signed with the Red Sox before the 2010 season, which saw Beltre have a big season and earn a multiyear deal with the Rangers last winter. Sizemore won't match the $10MM Beltre got from Boston, but a $6-7MM deal with incentives seems reasonable.

Heyman says the Athletics are interested in Sizemore but are worried about his health and his asking price.

Believe me, the Astros do NOT WANT to move to the AL. Current owner Drayton McLane and owner-to-be Jim Crane have both said previously that they would not move. The vast majority of fans absolutely abhor the idea of switching to the AL after more than 50 years in the NL.

But Bud Selig wants to add 2 more Wild Card teams to the playoffs. And the Players Association want an equal number of teams in each league to compete for the Wild Cards, instead of 14 AL teams and 16 NL teams. Not surprisingly, no other NL team “volunteered” to move. With ownership in limbo, and coming off a dreadful 106-loss season, the Astros had no leverage. Selig conveniently held up approval of the sale, strong-arming Crane into agreeing to move the Astros to the AL as a condition of approval.

What seems to get lost in all of this is, that once the leagues are realigned to 15 teams each, there most assuredly will be some form of inter-league play continually throughout the year. For every team. Every day. From April through September. Get it?

Is that really where most fans want to end up? I don’t. But then, I never liked inter-league play to begin with.

Holly is absolutely right other than one other key point. The players union wants all teams in both leagues to have a DH (bigger salaries = more union dues). As part of the new CBA, the union gets one more AL team that *must* use a DH. In addition, with year-round interleague play, even some NL may choose to carry a DH-like player on the roster because interleague play will come up randomly in the season, not just for a few weeks.

Reports are that the new scheduling will increase the number of interleague games each team plays from 15-18 per year to 30 per year (10 three-game series). That’s roughly 1/5th of the season now played against the “other league”. Once that starts, watch the demand amp up to “make everything fair” by making the DH rule permanent for both leagues.

Oakland would not be a good place for Sizemore at all. Weak line-up, too much foul territory,
dank conditions for night games. Not conducive conditions to building value for a contract. Philly would be the place to go.

Not the best place for Sizemore but Philly is a bad place too since they have to many outfielders. Oakland would give Sizemore lots of playing time which would be good. Josh Willingham helped his contract chances in Oakland by proving his power is good. The best CF for Oakland is Akoi who will bring the A’s extra fan revenue.

So the Philles got Papelbon and Thome, they want Sizemore, Cuddyear, Kubel, Rollins, Oswalt, Hamels, did they just wad up the budget and throw it out the window? They must really feel that window of opportunity closing fast.

Sizemore would be a perfect fit in Oakland. Just hope his asking price isn’t too ridiculous. His ability to hit the ball into the gaps would be perfect and add a presence in the lineup with Willingham gone as well as Matsui.

i see him going to a bigger market team because they would be more willing to take the risk, and with better hitters in the lineup around him he will see a lot more pitches that he can hit which will help him get his numbers up and hopefully get him his big contract next year

MLB/LAD will sign off on the deal with Sizemore’s agent because it’s a fit for everyone involved. LA absolutely must provide itself with another player to hit in front of or behind Kemp, who put up Batting Title, Triple Crown production while being the only hitter in the lineup. Sizemore would likely hit #3 in front of Kemp, ensuring that Kemp wont IBB as often because Sizemore will be on the basepaths more often than any player on the current LA team other than Kemp.

I wouldn’t move Kemp out of the three-hole. Not only would he lose at-bats over the course of the season, but he also had pretty good success in that slot in 2011. I woudln’t mess with that. I’d probably hit Sizemore second in front of Kemp.

the marlins uniforms look pretty cool. I like the colors especially the orange. Not yet sold on the hats tho, i would of just used the marlin and some other type of spectacle to interest people to buy rather than a huge M. But still good way to start the offseason, lets see how the rest pans out

Sizemore on a 1 year deal would be perfect for the Phillies – its a win/win situation. Low salary, mostly incentive laden, and if he is healthy, he’d be playing for a big payday next year, and we won’t need him next year… And if he does get hurt, that’s the reason we have Dom Brown.. he’s the star-in-waiting. He’ll start the year in AAA unless he has a monster Pre-Season.. but…. we will see a lot of Brown in 2012. Unless he’s traded, which i hope not.. he’s not over-rated, he WILL be a star one day soon. What he needs is to play everyday, get the AB’s and experience playing LF – that’s why they start him in AAA. And that should be the reason we also take a chance on a low cost ~ high reward flier on Grady Sizemore.

Would love to see Sizemore on a one year deal. The Phillies would be in a great position to take a chance on him with their outfield depth potentially behind him (Mayberry, Brown, potentially Fransisco).